


Camaraderie

by Rhinozilla



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Gen, post-chupacabra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-24
Updated: 2016-07-24
Packaged: 2018-07-26 08:34:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7567375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhinozilla/pseuds/Rhinozilla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Patricia comforts Carol after the events of “Chupacabra.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Camaraderie

Dinner had been a bust. What had originated as a gesture of gratitude by the new group had turned into an uncomfortable affair. Only the sounds of clinking glasses and silverware on plates moved through the farmhouse. Then again, given the events of the day, conversation probably wouldn’t have been appropriate.

Afterward, the individuals drifted awkwardly back to their tents or their rooms, but while helping Maggie and Beth wash the dishes, Patricia noticed the mother of the missing girl still seated at the dinner table. Carol didn’t look up when Patricia lingered in the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room; her eyes remained on the soggy, soiled doll in her lap. Her fingers lit over the sprinkle of blood on the doll’s left shoulder and the frayed scuffs on the doll’s face and arms: the results of rough handling and wear.

“I heard Rick say that finding it will narrow down the search grid by a lot.” Patricia announced her presence gently.

Carol glanced up then, with a smile that came too quickly and with eyes bone dry.

“It’s a good sign, right?” she asked immediately, as though it was all that she had wanted to hear all evening.

Patricia nodded her head slowly, unsure how to proceed. In the chaos of tending to Daryl and the obligation of civility during dinner, the terrified mother had been given little time to process the implications of the doll’s discovery. While Patricia had been running medical supplies in and out of the guest bedroom for Hershel, she had seen Carol merely return to her mission in preparing dinner, hardly missing a beat. As the house had emptied and the meal ended, it looked like the day’s events were finally sinking in.

The clatter of water across plates as Beth rinsed dishes snapped them both of their respective reveries, and Carol abruptly stood.

“I’m sorry. There’s—“

“We can handle the cleaning.” Patricia stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. “Take a break. Take a breather.”

Carol rubbed her neck as she contemplated Patricia’s words. Her eyes drifted around the empty first floor of the house, looking for a distraction from her thoughts, eventually landing on the closed guest room door, which no one had neared since a few hours earlier. Patricia hadn’t interacted much with the men of this group. Hershel seemed to respect Rick, but Patricia couldn’t bring herself to be around him or Shane for any real length of time. It was too painful. It was strange, though, that Daryl had been out all day searching for the missing girl and come back in such a pitiful state…and yet the rest of his group had more or less just stayed away from the injured man since then. Carol’s eyes lingered on the door.

“It’s a thankless job.” Patricia murmured, tugging the towel from her shoulder.

“Hm.” Carol hummed in response before looking at her. “What?”

“Cooking and cleaning.” Patricia changed gears with an absent gesture toward the kitchen. “As soon as the food’s gone, they’re all just…poof.” She snapped her fingers and nodded her head toward where the men of the group were loitering at the camp outside.

Carol followed her gesture, snorted, sighed, and looked back to Patricia, her gaze flitting to the guest room door along the way. “How is he?”

Patricia paused. “Irritable.”

That earned a chuckle, and it eased the tension in the room substantially.

“Too bad he missed all this.” Patricia waved a hand at the cleared table.

Carol scoffed lightly, her smile lingering. “I can’t imagine…” She exhaled and set the dirty doll down on one of the chairs. “I bet he hasn’t eaten…Has anybody—“

Patricia shook her head. “Last person that went in there was Hershel a few hours ago.”

Carol grimaced at that. “I’ll take him something. Probably hasn’t eaten all day.”

She moved past Patricia into the kitchen, and Patricia turned and followed. She started stacking clean plates as Beth dried them. Maggie wordlessly helped Carol assemble a tray of food, though the young woman seemed distracted for some reason. After Carol took the tray and slipped into the guest room, Beth stopped washing dishes and looked to Patricia.

“He was really messed up when they brought him back. If that little girl was in the same part of the woods as he was…You really think they’ll find her okay?” Beth asked.

Patricia glanced toward the outer room in time to see Maggie bolt out of the house just as Carol stepped out of the guest room, leaving the food inside and closing the door quietly after herself.

“I hope so, sweetheart.” Patricia remarked, watching Carol step out onto the porch for some air. “I hope so.”


End file.
